1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a character input method and apparatus in which arbitrary coordinate data can be input on a displayed keyboard, and a desired character can be input from the correspondence between the input coordinate data and each key of the displayed keyboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
Key input apparatuses, computer apparatuses or the like have been known in which a keyboard (soft keyboard) is displayed on the picture surface of the apparatus, and an input operation is performed by designating a key position on the displayed keyboard using a pointing device or the like. In general, when performing an input operation using an ordinary keyboard, in order to input a desired character by combining a special key, such as a shift key, a control key, an alternate key or the like, with an ordinary character key, both keys must be simultaneously depressed. On the other hand, when performing a key input operation using a displayed soft keyboard, it is impossible to simultaneously depress two keys by a single pointing device. Accordingly, the above-described key input operation of combining a character key with a special key is performed by first selecting the special key by an operation, such as clicking, tapping or the like, of a mouse or the like, and then selecting the character key by the same operation. In this case, the operation mode of the selected special key is locked until another special key is selected, or the selected state is held until the same key is depressed again.
Accordingly, in the above-described conventional approach, when performing an input operation of only an ordinary character key immediately after a key input operation of a special key has been performed, the character key must be input after releasing the operation mode of the selected special key. Consider, for example, the case of inputting an English sentence "I am a Japanese." First, before inputting character "I", a shift mode is provided by designating a shift key, and then character key "i" is designated. Thereafter, the shift key is designated again to release the shift mode, and then the lower-case-letter string "am a" is input. Thereafter, the shift mode is provided again by designating the shift key, and then character key "j" is designated to input upper-case letter "J." Then, the shift mode is released by designating the shift key, and the remaining lower-case-letter string "apanese" must be input. As described above, the conventional approach has the disadvantage that the shift mode must be set and released every time an upper-case letter is input. The same kind of operation must also be performed when a control key or an alternate key is used.